Fax’s left side under scrutiny ahead of Dons date

Published:07:58Friday 01 May 2015

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Halifax coach Richard Marshall will make changes to his side for Sunday’s Championship fixture against Doncaster at the Shay (3.0) with the left wing partnership of Alex Brown and Chris Taylor likely to come under the most scrutiny.

Sheffield’s right side attack ripped Fax apart as the Eagles opened up a matchwinning 22-0 lead in the first half of last weekend’s 36-10 reverse at the Keepmoat Stadium.

And while Marshall said that “not all” criticism of Brown had been warranted, both players will be under the microscope this week.

“We haven’t finalised the team, but there might be some changes,” said Marshall, who has fit-again back Tommy Saxton and forward Adam Robinson waiting in the wings.

“Chris didn’t have his best game for us, and he’d be the first to say that, so we might tweak things there a little bit.

“Not all the criticism of Alex is justified, but there are certainly things in his game he needs to improve upon.

“His urgency needs to be better and he needs to have more impact generally, but you can’t say those three tries were solely his responsibility.

“He could have done things differently, but he was reacting to what was happening inside him.

“He did some good things in the game, as he did at Wakefield the week before, and we need more of that.

“As a team, we just need to be better this week; Doncaster scored 36 points against Bradford last weekend, which we didn’t manage to do, so they’re a dangerous team with the ball.

“We need to make sure we’re good on Sunday.”

Marshall’s attempts to bolster a squad that has lost departed trio Rikki Sheriffe, Paul Mennell and Matt Place, as well as the long-term loss to injury of Miles Greenwood, have made some progress, with a trio of young players joining the club on trial.

Utility back Ed Barber, a former Elland amateur who played professionally at Swinton, Andy Unsworth, an ex Warrington junior who has been playing in the Queensland Cup, and another former Wolf, the centre Jake Eccleston, are all training with Marshall’s side.

“Ed’s been with us a week and has done okay, Andy will come in on Friday and Jake will be with us from next week,” said Marshall.

“Andy’s been recommended by a coach in Australia, while Jake was released by Warrington at the end of last year.

“He was behind Toby King in the queue for a centre spot and they went with Toby, but Jake’s very, very quick and we’ll see how he goes.

“I’m keeping an eye on young Joe Martin at Gloucester too, and we’ve got the option to recall him if we feel it’s necessary.

“I’m not saying any of them are going to play in the next couple of weeks, but we’ve lost four players and we’re trying to find people who we can develop who can give us a bit more depth in the squad.”

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